Public Statements

Statement

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, blasted the Chinese regime's "abysmal human rights record," including its policy of forced abortion, during the first ever Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the annual report from the Congressional-Executive Commission on China.The Committee received testimony from several experts on China's ongoing human rights abuses, including forced abortion and the selective abortion of female fetuses, also known as "gendercide."

"This hearing shed further light on the many injustices the people of China still face at the hands of an oppressive communist regime," Ros-Lehtinen said. "Responsible nations must demand that China end its brutal human rights abuses, including the unspeakable forced abortion policy, and we must support those in China standing up for their rights and for democracy."

One witness noted Ros-Lehtinen's pressuring of Chinese leader Hu Jintau to halt the regime's human rights abuses. Tiananmen Square organizer and survivor Chai Ling said to Chairman Ros-Lehtinen: "You brought up China's brutal practices with Hu Jintao during his visit in a challenge to him to end it. Thank you for your courage and clarity."

John Kamm of The Dui Hua Foundation praised Chairman Ros-Lehtinen for holding the hearing. "I commend the Chairman on holding this first-of-its-kind hearing on the annual report of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China," Kamm said.

Ros-Lehtinen used the question-and-answer period to put China's brutal forced abortion policy in the spotlight. "The [Commission] reports that in October 2010, local family planning officials in Southern China kidnapped a woman who was eight months pregnant with her second child and detained her for 40 hours. They forcibly injected her with a substance that caused the fetus to be aborted. During this time the woman's husband was not permitted to see her. How widespread are such coercive practices?" Ros-Lehtinen asked.

Ros-Lehtinen continued: "Population statistics indicate a growing gender imbalance in China, with a lack of female children and young women of marriageable age due to the coercive "one-child' policy and Confucian preference for male children. Many have termed the selective abortion of female fetuses as "gendercide.'"